What’s in the Garden? Middle of July Garden Update

It’s the middle of July, and it’s still insanely hot. Are you surprised? I’m not, lol. Regardless, let’s take a quick look around to see what’s growing in the garden.

Even though there are tons of weeds in the garden, the trellis is loaded with various vines. Most of the vines are pole beans and scarlet runner beans. However, you can clearly see that those ding dang morning glories from last year are on the vine, too. Last year’s morning glories are so invasive this year, I honestly don’t think that I’ll ever make the deliberate choice to grow morning glories again.

The tithonia plants are looking really nice right now. The plants are easily over 6ft tall, and are completely loaded with vibrant orange flowers. These plants are covered with pollinators all day long. I’d love to have the space to plant an entire row of these!

The benary’s giant zinnia blooms are huge. This one is the ‘Benary’s Wine’ (at least that’s what the packet said – looks more purple than wine to me…) Anyway, the one in the back is the ‘Benary’s Scarlet’.

Here’s a close-up of the ‘Carolina Cross’ watermelons. There are several melons on the vine, but all of them are small and aren’t growing. I assume that the pollination just wasn’t good enough. The actual vines have completely taken over the garden pathways, and it’s nearly impossible for me to get to certain parts of the yard.

Look, tomatoes! This year, I tried a different trellis for the tomatoes. I put the trellis in a terrible spot, so the weeds are out of control and it’s hard to harvest them. But overall, I’m really happy with the new method.

Biennial chicory seedlingsRed Buckwheat seedlings

I’ve also started the fall garden using seed trays. This is the first time I’ve been able to afford them, so to say that I’m excited is an understatement. Anyway, here’s a look at a few trays. I think that these are the broccoli. They’re a little leggy because I had them in the shade for way too long. Hopefully, they’ll start looking better over the next few weeks.

If you’ve been following the blog for awhile, you’ll remember the problem that I had with flea beetles on the amaranth. I’m really glad the plants were tough enough to deal with the damage. Here are some of the plumes being produced right now.